I ground my teeth. Dylan wasn’t the only one whose life was easier before Liv got involved. But I couldn’t abandon her now. I loved her too much.
Chapter Seventeen
Gabe
What do you mean you can’t find her?” I asked, frustrated, gripping the edge of the coffee table. It’d only been twenty-four hours, but we needed to get going on this.
Dylan threw his hands up. “I warned you this wouldn’t be easy. She’s done something to protect herself from being found. But at least we are all still alive.”
I stalked up to him. “This is ridiculous. You should be able to find her.”
He shoved me away. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Liv’s grandmother is a powerful goddess and has taken steps to ensure that no one can track her. There is nothing else I can do.”
A cackle sounded from behind us. I spun around. Bea stood there, arms crossed. “Seriously, you three thought you could find me?”
Ali’s eyes widened. Melissa wasn’t here. He couldn’t protect himself.
He stood. “Bea, it’s good to see you. Would you like something to drink? Melissa is in the kitchen and makes the best tea around.”
Bea stared at him for a second. Then she nodded. “I did not expect hospitality.”
“We just wanted to talk to you,” I said as Ali disappeared into the kitchen. He wouldn’t be returning. I offered Bea a chair, and she sat with a flourish.
“Why are you looking for me?” She grinned, like this was easy and she hadn’t been hiding out.
“It’s about Liv. She doesn’t remember me.”
“Of course she doesn’t, Gabriel. Do you really think I’d let my dear granddaughter continue a relationship with you? You have another thing coming if you think I’d condone such a thing.”
I kept my voice even, but it was hard to hide the anger. “That is not your choice. You had no right to take her memories. That wasn’t fair to her.”
“I bet she’s learning all kinds of horrible things up at that school. I’ve been told she’s making great progress.”
“Why did you take her memories anyway?” I tamped down my anger at her. I wanted to yell and scream, but I had to keep my temper in check if I had a prayer of her helping me.
Bea sighed. “Do you think they would’ve trained her if they knew she had a Jinn on a leash?”
“They would—”
“You’re lying,” Dylan interjected and glared at her.
Bea narrowed her eyes at him. “I always liked you until now.”
“How do you know she’s lying?” I asked.
“Because he’s a witch. A damn good one too.” She leaned forward and tapped a finger on her chin. She was acting like this was some big joke. “You want the truth?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Fine. I took her memories to protect myself. The goddesses cannot find her connection to me, or a millennia of avoidance will go away. I am in more danger from the goddesses than you are. And yet, a few goddesses remain loyal to me, so I know how my granddaughter is being treated. She’s very talented, but then of course she would be. I would’ve been very disappointed otherwise. Do you know she caught a Jinn already?”
“She’s done it before. For me,” I said. She’d trapped Samir once. Of course she could do it again.
“Stop trying to be noble. You forget who you were thousands of years ago, didn’t you? Don’t worry though, Liv will know soon enough.”
“What do you mean?” This was not going at all like I planned. I wanted Bea to give Liv her memories back, not tell me all the ways in which Liv and I would become enemies. I couldn’t lose her. Not now. Not ever.
Bea stood up and sauntered over to me. “Oh, Gabriel dear, your life would’ve been so much easier if you’d helped me in the first place. I only let you near Liv because I knew how harmless you were. It’s part of your weakness. You always try to do the right thing and never look after yourself. You should be more like your friend Ali. He bailed on you because he considered himself first.”
“I know. I expected him to. He was protecting his relationship with Melissa.”
“You should’ve done a better job protecting your own relationship with Liv.”
I shot up. “This is your fault. Don’t try to blame me.” I was several inches taller than her, but she stood her ground.
She smiled and ran a finger along my face. “Such a beautiful face. Too bad that by this time tomorrow Liv will want nothing more than to obliterate it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Liv is not the first daughter of mine who you’ve been involved with. Let’s just say the goddesses are bringing in the big guns. You might want to make sure you’re far, far away.”
She winked out of existence. I wandered the house, thinking. I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge.
Bea claimed she’d been around for a long time and insinuated that we had a past, and I’d been involved with her daughter.
Oh, shit.
I pulled out my phone and called Ali.
“You need to come back. Bea’s gone.”
“Okay. Be there in a second.” I took a couple of breaths and suddenly Ali and Melissa were back.
“What happened?” Ali asked, leaning against a counter.
“You’re gonna wanna sit down.”
Ali creased his eyebrows and took a seat at the table. I paced back and forth in front of him and Melissa, trying to make sense out of everything.
“Bea is Bast.”
Ali let out a laugh. “No way.”
I continued to pace. “Yes, she is. Ali this is bad.”
“She didn’t try to kill you?”
Dylan entered from a side door. “Bast, huh? That’s a surprise.”
“Oh, believe me, if she had a way to kill me, she would’ve. What I’m shocked by is that she didn’t ask about the elixir,” I said.
“Maybe she didn’t realize you had it after you disappeared,” Ali said.
“Yeah, maybe.”
“Liv’s never going to get her memory back. Bast is too good.”
Melissa dropped a hand on my shoulder. “You’ll figure out something else. You always do.”
“Not this time. Tomorrow Natalia is going to be at the sanctuary. After that, Liv will never speak to me again.” I tried everything I could to block Natalia from my memory. We were lovers thousands of years ago. She was probably the worst thing that ever happened to me. Beyond worst. She rarely left Egypt, so I didn’t worry about her showing up. But if she was coming to town, my future was screwed.
Ali paled. “Yeah, Mel and I are bailing. You’re welcome to come if you want. We won’t stay here another night, not if she’s coming to town.”
I let out a breath. “I should. But I can’t. I need to see Liv one more time. Then I’ll join you.”
After that, I’d never see her again. I thought my heart broke before, but now it shattered.
Chapter Eighteen
Liv
I thought for sure when Goddess Lianna summoned me, that she’d found out about Tokyo, and then there would be all kinds of questions about my true identity. Which of course, I didn’t have answers for.
I wiped my hands on my skirt and knocked softly on the door. This woman shouldn’t terrify me anymore. She was just a goddess. But she was so intimidating.
“Come in,” she called.
I pushed the door open. Lianna sat at her desk, scrawling on a piece of paper. A few books sprawled out in front of her. I approached her desk and sat cautiously.
“Olivia, thank you for coming to see me. We need to talk about Gabriel.”
“What about him?” There was nothing more to say. Well, there was a lot more to say. Lianna didn’t know I’d seen him, but that would have to remain a secret for now. I was going to get my answers from him; then I’d tell Lianna everything. Or maybe not.
“I believe you have no recollection of him, but from what the other Jinn said, it sounds as if he cared abo
ut you a great deal. I want to make sure that if he were to ever approach you, that you would understand who you were dealing with.”
“Okay,” I said. Gabe seemed relatively harmless, and I definitely had the upper hand where he was concerned.
“There are very few Jinn who I know by name, and those that I do are not for good things. Gabriel is one of them.”
My hands shook. I’d been a fool. From everything I’d heard about Jinn so far, they were monsters. Was Gabe really worse than the rest? I braced myself. Maybe he killed my parents. If that were true, I was about to commit murder myself. They said it wasn’t possible to kill a Jinn, but I would find a way.
Another knock came, jolting me out of my murderous thoughts.
“Come in,” Lianna called.
A lithe woman walked in. She was quite a bit taller than me and had raven hair. Her blue eyes stood out against her dark skin. Like most of the other goddesses, she wore a sheath dress that fell to the floor.
Lianna stood and greeted her with kisses on cheeks. “Welcome, Natalia. It’s been too long.”
Natalia. That name rang a bell. Oh, she was the one who wanted to kill Bast. Lianna thought it was possible for me to be Bast. Did she want me dead? I searched for a way to escape.
“That it has.” Natalia had a sing-song voice with a rich accent. She broke away from Lianna and eyed me. “Is this the girl?”
“It is. Olivia, come and say hello.”
I stood, a little unsure of myself. Okay, a lot unsure of myself. I should run.
“That is not Bast,” Natalia said.
Lianna let out a breath of relief. “Thank you for clarifying.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Because Bast is my mother. We spent thousands of years together. I would recognize her in a heartbeat. But I did not come here to speak of Bast. I came to talk to you about Gabriel.”
I shifted my feet. This was an ancient goddess who’d been alive thousands of years. The things she must’ve seen and done. She was feared by many.
“Yeah, I know,” I said lamely. I felt like I was supposed to bow or something. But that would be stupid. Lianna didn’t. Natalia could probably utter a few words and make me wish I was dead.
Her eyes flicked to Lianna then back to me. “I prefer to walk and talk. Why don’t you show me around the gardens.”
I’d never actually been in the gardens. But sure, why not. At least I knew how to get there.
“Of course,” Lianna said. “Let’s go.”
Natalia looked down her nose at Lianna. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t very clear. I meant I would like to walk with Olivia alone.”
Lianna brought her hand to her chest. She fiddled with a necklace for a beat and gave a forced smile. “Olivia, you know how to get to the gardens?”
I nodded. Words would not come out. I wondered if I would ever feel like these women were my equals. I’d probably always stutter around them.
“Well, then I will see you when you get back. Natalia, will you be staying for lunch?”
Natalia didn’t take her eyes off me. “Perhaps. But Olivia and I can figure that out. Come, child. I want to see the flowers.”
She held out her hand. I slid mine into hers. It was such a strange gesture. Josie and I linked arms sometimes, but holding hands seemed more intimate somehow. Scary too. Some goddesses learned things through the hands.
She didn’t let go until we stepped outside. “What do you think of Lianna?” she asked.
“She’s nice.” I didn’t want to say the wrong thing. I wasn’t exactly sure what she wanted from me. I wasn’t about to say anything bad about Lianna.
Natalia let out a light laugh. “Nice is not a word I would use to describe her. Kathryn maybe, but not Lianna.”
“How would you describe her?” I asked, now curious. I’d spent very little time speaking with any of the goddesses.
She tapped her chin. “Hmm. Nosy. Manipulative. Pretentious. She would love to be part of the old goddesses, but she’s too young.”
“How old is she anyway?”
Natalia had a way of putting me at ease, and I wondered if she was using some of her persuasion magic on me.
“Around a thousand, I think. She’s does a phenomenal job raising new goddesses, but she’ll never have the power my sisters and I have.”
Too young? My mind raced through those numbers.
“That seems so long.”
“It does, doesn’t it? I would’ve thought so too at your age, but now, time races by. I blink, and a hundred years have passed.” She paused and admired an old tree. I tried to see what she was staring at, but it didn’t seem all that special to me. I waited quietly for her, not daring to interrupt. If a thousand was young, then she had to be thousands of years old. “So Lianna tells me you’ve lost your memories. What do you remember?” she asked.
“I know some things. Like I have a brother, and my mother is dead, but I can’t remember names or places or picture any of them.”
“That’s unusual, but I’ve seen it before.”
My heart swelled. Maybe there was hope.
“Did the person get their memories back?” Maybe she was here to help me.
“Multiple people, child. With the exception of a few, all regained their full memories. Sometimes, the person who cast the spell removed it, but most had a traumatic event that brought them back. Something that jarred their memories so hard that it broke through the spell. I’ve heard it’s very painful.”
Oh great. It was going to be painful. It didn’t matter though. I’d give anything to remember my mother’s face and my brother’s name. “What kinds of things do it?” I asked.
“Something that brings strong emotion. The death of a loved one or the kiss of a lover.”
I chewed on my bottom lip. I didn’t want anyone to die. Maybe I had a lover before. Maybe it was Gabe. I shuddered. I did not even want to think of that. Really, what I needed to do was find whoever cast the spell and make her take it off.
“How did you know Gabe…riel?” I almost messed that up. If I used Gabe, she’d know I’d been talking to him.
Her eyes danced. “Gabriel was my lover many, many years ago.”
My mouth dropped.
If Gabe consorted with her, then there was no way he and I were ever anything. The lover card was officially off the table. It didn’t matter what he said to me. This woman and I weren’t even close to the same league. No memory jarring kisses would come from him.
But then that begged the question. What did he want from me?
Chapter Nineteen
Liv
Natalia stopped to smell a rose. “Divine,” she said and smiled at me. I was still trying to wrap my brain around the fact that the guy talking to me at the beach had had a thing with this woman. Surely that was impossible.
She looked like the type of woman who would kill her lovers—like a praying mantis. Could any man survive her? Probably not.
We walked a few feet in silence. “Lianna tells me Gabriel cares for you.”
“She thinks so because some Jinn said Gabriel promised not to hurt him if he left me alone.” Plus he told me he did. Maybe there was more than one Jinn named Gabriel.
“That could mean a lot of things. I can promise you this though, Gabriel does not care for you. He may pretend he does, but that man cares for nothing but himself. He’s a master manipulator and has a heart of ice. Obviously, you have no memory of him now, but at some point your memories will come back, or he will try to contact you, and you must understand what he is capable of.”
She didn’t have to tell me twice. Though now I wondered why she would feel she had to convince me of anything different. I’d already learned plenty of lessons. I wanted them all dead.
“I already know what Jinn are capable of. How could he be worse?”
“Have you learned of the Djinn?”
“Yes, they control the Jinn, and the goddesses control him, but the only one disappeared thousands of years a
go.”
“So you know that a Djinn holds the power to kill other Jinn. They lead with brutality. For years, Samir was the Djinn. When I was with Gabriel, he spoke of how he envied Samir. Once, after Gabriel came to trust me, he told me of his plan to someday become Djinn and rid Samir of his power.”
“But Samir disappeared years ago. Did Gabriel succeed?”
“Possibly. Gabriel disappeared as well. If he did, something went wrong because no one has heard from Gabriel in thousands of years.”
Until now.
He was talking to me, and other Jinn had obviously seen him. I was trying to put together everything she was telling me.
“How does that make him worse?” I asked, now wanting the full story. Why was this formidable woman scared of Gabriel?
She ran her hand along the bark of a tree. “Oh, dear, I have just begun. I wanted you to understand his thirst for power. He desired to control everyone and everything around him. I don’t fear much, but I fear Gabriel. I didn’t see it at the time because I fancied myself in love with him, but over the years that we were together, he very slowly took control of my life. By the time I escaped from him, I had cut off all contact with my family, and my friends were dead.”
I gulped. There was no way the Gabe from the beach and the Gabriel she spoke of were the same person. I should be able to tell if he was evil, and he didn’t give off those vibes. Though, all the Jinn were evil. He just seemed so nice.
“How did your friends die?”
“Do you know the story of how the Jinn were trapped?”
“Yes. They killed a bunch of Bast’s servants, and she trapped them all.” That was the first story they taught us at the school. The Jinn were awful from the very beginning.
“That is not the whole story. It actually begins much earlier, and it starts with Gabriel, not Samir. Samir was angry, but he would not have known how to take life force if it were not for Gabriel.”
“What did he do?” I asked. I’d never heard this story.
The Glowing Sands (Sons of the Sand Book 3) Page 9
